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I can say with unwavering certainty that I am able to find a lesson in anything I hear or see. So when I was watching ESPN’s First Take this morning, a great lesson slapped me right in the face. The topic was: will a second Super Bowl ring make Eli Manning more popular and translate into more endorsement deals?

The long and the short of it can be summed up with one word: No.

• Eli Manning is an excellent role model for children. 
• Eli Manning is an even-kiel sportsman.
• Eli Manning is, by all accounts, a good person that stays out of trouble.

But one thing Eli Manning isn’t, is marketable. Nice guys actually do finish last in some things, and end up going to the prom alone. With that being said, in the marketing and promotions world — they’re never going to get the girl. I can hear you right now too, you’re screaming WHAT ABOUT TIM TEBOW RYAN!?!? Well the #Tebowing phenomenon isn’t comparable. He’s a very vocal Christian, and we are all well aware that sex, politics, and religion sell. Does Tebow want to make money off of his Christianity? No, I truly believe he doesn’t — nor do I think his faith is based on its ability to make him more money. But Tebow ruffles feathers because of who he IS not who he is NOT. Consequently, marketers have no problem exploiting him and that fact to get impressions and make money.

Eli is not his brother Peyton. All of their father Archie’s charisma wen to Peyton, and none was left for Eli. Peyton can sell more pizzas. Eli can’t. Unfortunately for Eli, this isn’t one of those scenarios where can’t should be a word in your vocabulary.

And what about Tim Duncan you ask? 

Well when was the last time you saw Tim Duncan in a commercial? His most recent Bridgestone Super Bowl commercial with Steve Nash is the first time I remember seeing him in any kind of promotional material in four to five years…AT LEAST! Duncan is a go-about-his-business, no non-sense, unassuming guy. And that’s about as appealing to marketing departments as this —————————>

As a business owner don’t be Eli Manning or Tim Duncan. We don’t remember the Eli’s and Tim’s of the world. Here’s two examples, national and local:

• Mike Arrington founder of Tech Crunch and now Crunch Fund 
• Scott Wise founder of Scotty’s Brewhouse & Thr3ewisemen  

Say what you want about them, one being more polarizing (Mike) than the other (Scott) … but if you’ve ever met either of them I bet you remember them. That’s the point. Be memorable.

Here is what I am not saying: you need to be brash, polarizing, and loud. 

Here is what I am saying: you need to be confident, approachable, and vocal.

You don’t have to be the Chad Ochocinco (formerly Chad Johnson) of local restaurants or Meta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) of Internet software. At the end of the day, even the greatest business owner personalities can fail. If a business has an unsatisfactory product/service (and/or) it becomes known from having more talk than late night television and it cannot back it up — well, they’ll weed themselves out. It’s been that way in business cycles since humankinds first trade. 

You are your brand. Bad brands can bounce back with continued great service/product coupled with the fact that with so much information flowing through the web on a daily basis, we are a society that forgives and forgets rather quickly. (Sans obvious exceptions to that rule) Boring brands, however, can’t bounce back. We simply decided to talk about the Peyton’s of the world, and thus we forgot to invite the Eli’s to the party.

Momentum is a very interesting word. It is a word that describes more about what you can expect in the future, as opposed to what you should expect right now. Momentum, in fact, is one of the better forecasters of all-time. (His track record proves it) So as the momentum builds for Super Bowl 46, it’s a pretty exciting feeling being a part of the host city.

More importantly, Indianapolis is going to silence some of the cold weather host city critics. Dr. Patrick Rishe of Forbes.com, explained Why Indianapolis Is A Highly Desirable Super Bowl Host City. Here are some highlights from that piece: 

EXPERIENCED AT ACCOMMODATING MASSIVE CROWDS – INDY 500, FINAL FOURS

As far as live one-day spectator sports go, you can’t get much bigger than the Indianapolis 500. With over 257,000 seats at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and an estimated annual attendance of roughly 300,000, this is easily twice as large and perhaps closer to three times larger than the attendance for Super Bowl XLVI…

WALKABLE DOWNTOWN WITH NUMEROUS ENTERTAINMENT AMENITIES

Having attended numerous professional and amateur sporting events across America, I can tell you that fans appreciate convenience.  And one big aspect of convenience is transportation from point A to point B.  Most notably, the typical visiting sports spectator loves scenarios where they can walk from their hotel to most of the cool visitation amenities in the area.  The less driving, the better.

A wise man once said: This isn’t my first rodeo cowboy. Indianapolis has proven time and time again that it can host, and exceptionally well, large weekend or week-long events. Not only does Indianapolis have a history of well hosted events, we’re proving to be extremely innovative too. The first ever Social Media Command Center for a Super Bowl is being launched at Super Bowl 46. A team of strategists, analysts and techies will monitor the digital fan conversation via Facebook, Twitter and other platforms from a 2,800-square-foot space downtown.

Tom Spalding was one of the people chosen for Social 46 and he’s doing something pretty cool. Tom is chronicling the entire Super Bowl 46 experience pushing social information to the Interwebs through his Storify collection. Social 46 is a gathering of Indiana’s top social media influencers according to the Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee. In short, it is a list that was put together to help build buzz and spread information about the Super Bowl. Invitations were limited to, <drumroll please> 46. They aren’t being paid, and minus a few freebies these are Hoosiers that have been tasked with, and accepted, helping make Super Bowl 46 the most socially connected Super Bowl ever!

The list of people blogging and tweeting about the Super Bowl reaches FAARR beyond just those deemed one of the ‘Social 46’. Excitement is contagious, and by no means are only those 46 individuals allowed to share information! It’s ENCOURAGED that everyone in Indianapolis contributes to building the buzz of the Super Bowl, AND takes time to enjoy all of the festivities we’re hosting too!

Conversations around the Super Bowl, Social 46, and how SB46 can help the Indianpolis economy are everywhere!

There is this post from Jay Baer, this post from Lorraine Ball, and this post from Chris Theisen — just to highlight a few. Additionally, there is the slew of #hashtags you can follow on Twitter:

• #social46
• #superindy
• #superbowl
• #superbowl46
• #sb46
• #indy
• #zipline
• #XLVI
• superbowl2012
• sb2012
• sbvillage
• super46

The reach of Super Bowl 46 is going to be far beyond any previous Super Bowl. It will be the first truly social media supported SB. Even the mobile app is kick-ass.

On a personal note, I just have one request for all of my Indianapolis friends — get out of your own way. Ego’s and inflated opinions on who should of gotten this, why you should of been on that, etc.etc.etc. is a lot of wasted hot air. Let’s just agree to disagree on all of that small nonsense. And in turn, come together to show everyone that Indianpolis throws one hell of a party.

image credits: AroundIndy.com, Athima Chansanchai of Tima Media & msnbc.com, Meggie Dials, and Jeff Robinson, Director of Marketing, Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association.

Am I the only one that finds motivation in the strangest of places? Seriously, random-acts-of-DUHness. Last night I was eyes-deep (if thats not a word I just made it up) in what ended up being my favorite Criminal Minds off all-time…when I saw it. It was a commercial, so of course I’m surfing Twitter on my iPhone. (insert audience laughter) And I see my friend Heather Meeker RT our mutual friend Marsha Collier…

Wow. Staring me in the face was something that summed up how I felt about the last three years. What you are “going to do” in 2012 isn’t how you build a reputation Ryan. Ideas are nothing but ideas if they aren’t created. Words are just that, words, unless they are past-tense, describing something that’s already happened. In my best Marsha voice, “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”

Well I’ll be damned. I’ve made no bones about it, 2012 for me is all about follow-through. The frustrating thing about follow-through you ask? Well, even though I’m only 20 days in 2012 I have one very big pain point with follow-through: time. Time isn’t something you can fast-forward in real life. The fact of the matter is simple: follow-through involves an AWFUL lot of it. And that’s tough. Patience isn’t a virtue I was born with. I’m a perfect definition of the counter, impatient. 

Couple my impatient tendencies with my very Type-A ‘shiny new thing’ entrepreneurship personality, I’ve managed to develop one hell of a bark. Unfortunately, with all that barking I literally forgot to bite. Blindly, I got so good at barking that I ended up trying to build a reputation of what I was going to do…not what I’d already done. Talk about backwards. I was a mess, and I didn’t know it.

Lucky for me, life, both personal and business, is nothing more than a giant learning experience. If you’ve stopped learning, well, you’ve pretty much given up. I don’t recommend doing that. It’s not a good look. It was time for me to Shut Up And Do It Already. I’m a mission to turn accomplishments into past-tense not future-tense. But hey, I’m wandering into over-talking a reputation I don’t even have yet.

Here’s to a year of nothing but follow-through on building a reputation that can only be described with past-tense verbs, not future-tense. (cheers)

Work. Family. Self.

Imagine if you were asked by your boss to decide to choose two of the three in order to be really successful. Which two would you choose? Amy Jo Martin chose all three. She then proceeded to turn in her two-week notice and left her job deciding to be fearless and conquer all three. Let me ask a serious question: Are you automating your life? 

Think about the online+offline version of you. Using programs like Buffer are not the are not the only forms of automation. Routines become automation. How many of us check our Facebook on our phone before rolling out of bed? How many of us take a picture of our food and post it to Instagram or Oink before actually taking a bite? How many of us checkin on Foursquare before we actually look up to see if our friends are at the bar? We are beginning to automate our offline lives and we may not eve realize it. And the more automation grows, the more innovation dies.

As I was watching Amy’s TEDx Talk - Innovate your life, I couldn’t help but feel like she was talking to me. You know that time you feel like a song is being sung for you? When the episode of your favorite show is a dramatization of your yesterday? I had one of those moments. I’d lost my passion and purpose — and Amy was calling me out. I had stopped innovating my life and I was clearly automating it. Our parents will call it “going through the motions” — but they’d be wrong. We aren’t even going through the motions, we’re simply automating them.

After watching the video, I emailed Amy. I told her how awesome it was and how I’d long appreciated her since the ‘Random Acts of Shaqness’ days. Amidst all of the learning, don’t be short-sighted or afraid to tell those who you’ve learned from that you did. You’d be surprised the feedback you get. And after the email was sent (right before my U-8 basketball team practice, you can call me #CoachKnight), I made a decision. And who know who is holding me accountable for that decision (besides the Internet now)? My team, the Hornets. I am Innovating my life.

No more automation for me. I don’t care if I have to call you 100 times before you answer, I’m texting less. I don’t care how frugal I have to be, I’m getting out of student loan debt. And I don’t care how hard someone else thinks something is, I am going after what I want to do professionally, and I’ll be damn successful at it too. 

I’m only bound by the speed of my own actions. 

I’m going to inject more purpose into my business.

Amy said it best, “You CAN have it all, you just have to define what your all is.” I’ve defined my ALL. I’ve chosen I want to innovate my life — and innovate the hell out of it I will. Thanks for the push Amy.

I’m on a health kick. You most likely know that already. Follow-Through is my defining word of 2012. In conjunction with my new found health kick, I have finally acknowledged one very key fact: Accountability is one heck of a tool for follow-through. So Chris Theisen and I decided that we were going to hold each other accountable for our daily water intake. 

Thus, the #h2o12 hashtag was born.

My awesome accountant, and fitness+health nut Michelle Boyden aka Meeeeeechelle helped me land on the goal of trying to drink about a gallon of water a day. That’s roughly 11 refills of my favorite #IUBB cup.

I’m on Day 7 of the Ryan+Chris Challenge. And you’ll be happy to know, I’m allllllll over the follow-through.

Question is: Are you drinking enough water everyday? [Vote in the poll below]

follow-through: carrying some project or intention to full completion

I decided I was not going to do a New Years Resolution post, because the market is flooded with those and my blog doesn’t carry enough weight (yet) to rise above that noise. Be honest with yourself, how many of those did you read/see? I’m guessing the number is closer to ten than it is one. I hope that everyone sticks to their list of ‘New Year New Me’ and gets after it in 2012. Honestly, I do. I hope that all of you hit every goal you’ve given yourself.

In deciding how I was going to write this post, I hadn’t come any closer to choosing an idea, when my good friend Andrew Dumont (check out his blog here) tweeted this:

The Problem Isn’t Motivation -http://s.hbr.org/xmoWqu

 It was a Havard Business Review (HBR) blog post by Peter Bregman. Halfway through the post I saw the sentence that defined what 2012 was going to be for me, both personally and professionally:

No, Byron’s challenge isn’t motivation. It’s follow-through.

Eight words. Eight simple words that clearly defined my 2012. Follow-through. If you know anything about me, you know that I’m a go-getter. Motivation isn’t a problem I have. Whether it is self-motivation or motivating others — I’m pretty darn good at it if you ask me. So if motivation is not the elephant in the room, what is? What’s holding me back? What is the thorn in my craw? What was going to be my Yeaaaaa but or Maybe next year?

Follow-through.

At its root definition, follow-through is basic and easy to understand. However in application, it might as well be something like this:

Follow-through, in layman’s terms is completing a task. Not motivating yourself to complete a task, it requires the defined action of completing a task. Lets use the all-encompassing To-Do List as an example. You’ve might of heard me say a time or two: “To-Do Lists are meant to be done, not added to.”

Huh. I guess the advice you give truly is the hardest advice to take.

So here it is, my Follow-Through List for 2012:

1. Get my fat ass in shape. A picture is worth a thousands words, and I have about that many curse words for myself when I catch a glimpse in the mirror. I’m not doing it for any other reason but this one: health. I want to be able to know that I’m healthy, and by looking in the mirror see I’m healthy and fit. I miss playing soccer (and lots of it), I miss having more energy than most, I miss finishing first in races, I miss going to the pool — I just miss shit. All of that comes with being a more healthy and fit Ryan. I’ve got p90x 2 and no excuses. Trust me, I’ve exasperated every possible one.
2. Learning to code. I spent the ages of 23-27 being the ‘ideas’ guy. Hell, I even got a start-up funded out of it. But the point is I need to stop creating a bunch of ideas, and following-through on one. Not some, just one. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t get jealous of others successes. (I know, I know - not a good character trait) But luckily for me its very controlled and its one hell of a motivator. There is that word again…It seems I have plenty of motivation, so lets get some actionable follow-through and learn code. The stack I’m learning is: HTML, CSS, Ruby on Rails. I was complaining to Jared Brown, my good friend and the devhead behind this blog, about being tired of being dependent on other people for code. He asked me, “What do you want to build Ryan?” I explained to him the types of things that interested me and he replied, “You want to build web apps. Ruby on Rails is the best language for that.” Knowing that HTML and CSS were required skills, I was set.
3. Have fun.

So there you have it. Public Accountability at its finest. No smoke and mirrors, nothing but brutal self-honesty and call-outs. Its time I took back the parts of my life I was motivating myself for, but wasn’t following-through on shit. I think that the problem-solution is more so than just ‘talking about it vs. being about it.’ I’m done talking or being about all of it. Do it > talk it | be it.

I like to keep things simple when I can….So what is the one thing you’re going to do in 2012? Mine’s simple. Follow-through. 

If this blog post had a theme song, it would be Olivia Newton John’s Physical. Good. Now that you’ve got THAT song in your head, let’s get started.

 Know you need to fine-tune your website design but keep putting it off? Or regularly find yourself bugging friends on the interwebs whenever you need something done that you don’t know how to do? Here’s a thought:  Make a New Year’s resolution for your business – learn how to code.

 If I had a dollar for every post that I see on a social network asking about web development, coding, WordPress issues, changing WordPress themes, etc., I would be one wealthy chick. And, at the risk of sounding like a hardass (which I am), I have some pretty definitive feelings about business practices in general — and business practices as they relate to website design or refinement are no different. And, before you judge me for being too harsh, let me clarify: there’s a difference between occasionally asking for help and doing it on a regular basis. You know the people I’m talking about. I know you do.

 My philosophy when it comes to business is really pretty simple. It boils down to this:

  Know what you’re good at. Do that.

For the things you’re not good at, suck it up. Hire someone who does and pay them what they’re worth to do the job right.

 Or, if you can’t do that afford to do that, there’s one other route and that’s what this post is about. Quit whining, quit bugging your friends, quit expecting quality work at freemium prices. Learn to do what you need and don’t know – and what you don’t want to pay for (or can’t pay for) – and quit asking people to do it for free. Or on the cheap.

 I know, that sounds harsh. And make no mistake, I know what it’s like to be a small business owner, to watch pennies and try to wear a lot of hats. I, too, am a small business owner. But when does the day come that you invest in yourself? That old “cobbler’s children don’t have any shoes” adage only gets you so far. And if you want to be successful, sometimes you have to invest in your business, your image, your website, your education …. you name it.

 Do you know these people? Consultants or small business owners who are constantly whining about all the things they don’t know how to do, or not whining but incessantly asking others for help? While on one hand, I’m empathic and want to help, on the other, it makes me wonder how these folks can serve their clients. For instance, if you’re a consultant consulting with small business owners about PR and social media and digital marketing strategy, but you have a crummy website, how is it you expect people to hire you? If you sell strategy or write web content for clients or handle social media community building, and expect your clients to pay you for those services, how is it that you’re not interested in paying someone to build your website (as just one example) the way it needs to be built? Especially if what you’re selling – those strategic services – revolve around online marketing and the importance of a killer website. Do you see the irony?

 Again, it’s not my intention to disrespect small business owners who often don’t have a lot of money to allocate to things like design and web development. But I’m also tired of the perpetual cycle of people asking for things for free and always expecting that someone else can – and will - solve their problems. Without ever ponying up any real money – or even trade of services– in return.

 I’ve got a solution. Instead of wishing you knew more or asking friends for help, here’s your chance to take control.

 Enroll in Codecademy’s Learn to Code Program. It’s as painless as signing up here. When you do, each week a new interactive programming lesson will be sent to you. Badda bing, badda boom. Problem solved. Just. Learn. It. Yourself.

Dudes, it’s FREE. And this is your chance to learn from a lot of very smart people and cross one thing off that list of Things I Don’t Know How to Do But Wish I Did. So the only thing you’ll need to invest in yourself and your website – at least when it comes the coding part -  is your time. Surely you’re worth that.

 And you know what? That’s a brilliant idea. Even if it happens to be mine. The world isn’t getting any less technical. So, instead of asking for technical advice, let’s channel Olivia and get … technical.

 For the record, lest you think me championing never helping other people – that’s not what this blog post is about. I’m all about lending a hand and doing things on a regular basis to help others out. That’s part of living a good life. What I’m specifically suggesting here is not not helping others – it’s really about helping yourself. And if this kind of help with your website is something you find yourself regularly in need of, then maybe it’s time to learn to help yourself. Even just a little.

 Oh, by the way, I’m signed up and will be right there with you, every week. Because in my world, there’s no such thing as being ‘too technical.’ I can’t wait. Will I see you there?

P.S. When I discovered Codeyear this morning at about 11am, there were 44,837 people signed up for the course. At 3:15pm, there were 51,353 people signed up. And by 5:06 pm, which is when this post was uploaded, there were 55,373 people who decided to take matters into their own hands in 2012. Almost 10 thousand people in 6 hours … Holy Catballs!

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Shelly Kramer is the CEO of V3 Integrated Marketing. She’s a digital marketing strategist, and owner of a full service digital agency headquartered in Kansas City, MO.  What they do? It’s simple — if it’s on the web, Shelly and her team at V3 do it. She’s got a love of words, a propensity for data and analyses, is possessed of a twisted sense of humor and appreciates quick repartee more than most. The icing on the cake? Her well-published love of beer. Find her blog, stalk her on LinkedIn or find her on Twitter.